@Newtownunit , how are you getting OOS tuition for UF to be $48,000? When I check the tuition schedule it says out of state tuition is $953 per credit. At 30 credits per year that is $28,590. I hope I’m not missing something as $28K sounds too high as it is! We also live in Pennsylvania and are running the same calculation as you did. Penn State tuition runs $16,572 a year roughly. The question is whether we see UF being worth the extra $12,000 a year over Penn State. Rankings wise UF and Penn State are almost identical. But UF is my child’s dream school. Due to the in state tuition likelyhood FSU is also a possibility but UF is the first choice if money was not a consideration.
@FloridaBound16 that might be “fully loaded” COA with all expenses, although it does sound a little high.
I think when we ran the NPC for UF, the COA was about 43K total.
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=FL&ct=1&ic=1&pg=3&id=134130#expenses
For 2014-15
Out-of-state Tuition: $28,591
Books and supplies: $1,290
On Campus Room and board: $9,630
Other: $3,320
Total OOS On Campus: $42,831
Of course, you could have additional cost, like extra travel expenses and such.
PSU for in-state (on campus) is $34,598.
Still, without any merit aid, UF (like any state public university) is pricey for OOS students.
On a side note, even though UF is CLEARLY THE BEST school in Florida (no bias here!), you may also want to take a look at FSU, USF, UCF, and NCF. If you can get admitted to UF, you’re likely to be offered substantial merit/tuition waivers at these schools. FSU is very competitive in some majors, while USF (Tampa) and UCF also excel in some fields, like engineering, and are in great locations. New College of Florida (the Honors College) is a public “LAC” type school, very quirky, in a great location, that also offers merit scholarships for OOS students.
It is the fully loaded cost, and I probably added a small fudge factor to both FSU and UF for travel and other expenses. PSU gives no meaningful aid, so FSU and Penn State are almost interchangeable in that regard. For my son, it was a climate decision. Had UF come up with anything, he might well be there.
I am enjoying ut austin a lot but i am definitely coming here for med school (if i get in) after getting my masters in nursing. I am longhorn and gator forever
I truly hope they do increase their OOS scholarships. It really was painful to have to make a financial-based decision like we did as between FSU and UF. FSU provides an OOS tuition waiver for SATs above 2000, which takes the tuition down to about $5500 for OOS students. But with UF, they really don’t have many such scholarships, as an earlier post demonstrates. But once my son got the OOS waiver from FSU, it was really hard to go with UF. That’s in no way impugning UF’s academic integrity. At that point FSU was about $17K or so for the year, and UF was about $25K more. I will say that FSU was all over the high schools in the Council Rock School District (Bucks County, PA), and has flown down several guidance counselor to the school to help with visibility. They all knew about the OOS waivers for FSU and the first year abroad program (which provides an automatic OOS waiver for the 3 remaining years). They knew little or nothing about UF except that one student went there last year.
Go Aggies!
@Newtownunit - Within Florida, UF tends to get the cream of the graduating seniors who stay in-state and attend public schools. Since there is so much demand for admission at UF, particularly from alumni, the UF administration has chosen to limit OOS students to take in more in-state kids.
FSU does not face such a large demand from in-state kids, and, in order to boost their stats, FSU has been much more aggressive in pursuing kids who can raise their academic profile by essentially paying them to attend via merit aid. If they did not have the name recognition generated from sports to pull in smart OOS kids, their academic profile would be more similar to that of USF or UCF.
FSU does have a pretty good deal for OOS students who qualify academically.
Adding to Zinhead’s point. UF spends much more on need based aid, than does FSU. Which is great if you’re a low SES student in Florida, but doesn’t help you if you are an OOS student looking for a tuition waiver.
It’s a case of using your funds for need based aid VS using it on merit based aid (and recruiting high stat students).
This can be seen when comparing “net price” by income.
Net Price by Income (2013-2014)
$0 – $30,000: FSU $12,737 while UF is $7,207
$30,001 – $48,000: FSU $13,618 while UF is $7,587
$48,001 – $75,000 UF $16,473 while UF is $8,370
UF claims (based on the CDS info) to met 99% of need, while FSU is at 34%.
In fact, UF is a bit less expensive for in-state students. UF charges slightly less for tuition/fees and has lower housing cost.
FSU Average net price is $16,737
UF’s average net price is $14,786
FSU Cost of Attendance (In-state) : $21,208.00
UF’s Cost of Attendance (In-state): $20,590
On the other hand…
FSU’s OOS Tuition : $21,673
UF’s OOS Tuition; $28,591
These discussions always get side tracked by the UF/FSU rivalry. I’m not trying to stoke that at all. Based upon the information from the two schools, the student body sizes are approximately the same. UF took in between 550-600 OOS students in the incoming clase, and FSU took in about the same. Both schools have about 2500 OOS undergraduate. I attended the FSU orientation, and was surprised at the low number, but then when UF reported out, they were reasonably similar. You’ll have to forgive if I don’t really buy into the substantial qualitative difference between the institutions as both are very highly regarded. I was only explaining why an OOS student receiving the OOS tuition waiver from FSU would almost invariably tilt in that direction when also confronted with the full UF OOS price. What you really should be proud of, is how reasonably priced both institutions are for in state students. I think parents and students are lucky to have such choices. In Pennsylvania, where we reside, the instate numbers for Penn State and University of Pittsburgh (shades of the UF/FSU rivalry) are about the same as your out of state numbers. The all in cost for Penn State in state is about $33-35K. We had calculated that if my son had done the freshman year abroad at FSU, which gives you instate tuition for the three remaining years, we would have still saved 25% off of the Penn State education, and he would have been in Spain for a year!
Everything in Florida is about the UF/FSU rivalry 
FSU is a great option for OOS students (while UF’s, with it’s $28.5K a year tuition, is less so). I think FSU does a poor job of marketing itself (as does UF) and that’s keeping it’s OOS enrollment down. The more folks (especially in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Illinois) learn about it’s pricing and tuition waivers, the more it’s OOS enrollment will grow…
FSU is a very good deal for OOS students who qualify academically. The test scores that qualify people for free or reduced tuition at Alabama and Auburn would also get the OOS tuition at FSU, so I am surprised they don’t draw more OOS students.
As a reference, the following are the percent of OOS for the major public universities in Florida.
UF - 3%
FSU - 10%
USF - 8%
UCF - 5%
FIU - 3%
FAU - 4%
Source is as follows: